Google addresses concerns with Nexus 7 pre-orders

Lots of us pre-ordered the Google Nexus 7 Tablet the other week. Lots of us noticed odd things going on with the money in our bank accounts. Lots of us got a little cross at ebuyer selling the Nexus 7 last week. Lots of us have been logging into the Play Store on an hourly basis checking the status of our orders and most recently lots of us started to lose hope.

Well this morning when I turned my phone on I was meat with a glimmer of hope, in the form of an email from Google. It was the first time since my order confirmation that I had heard from them. Below is what it said.

Hello,

We wanted to send you an update on your Nexus 7 pre-order. We’ve had incredible demand for the new tablet and are shipping them as quickly as possible. All Nexus 7 8GB orders will ship by July 20, and Nexus 7 16GB orders will ship by next week. We’ve upgraded your shipping to overnight so your your order will arrive sooner.

If you’d like more detailed information on device shipments, please reference our online Help Centre here.

Thanks for your patience. Your Nexus 7 will be on its way soon.

The Google Play Team

Once again I logged in to check my order. Still nothing. then a short while later I got an email out of the blue saying that my Nexus had shipped, it also included a slight clue as to what was going on.

The clue was the TNT tracking number. Once the tracking number was up and running I checked where my parcel was. I got the shipped email from Google at 7am, the parcel got to the TNT depot at about 5am and was sent out for delivery at 7am. So if you are waiting it looks like you will not receive any info until TNT actually allocate it to a driver, at this point my card was charged as well.

I am guessing that Google have been massively caught out by the demand of the Nexus 7, leaving departments at a loss how to handle the back orders. So if you are waiting for your pre-order then bear in mind that this is the first time in the UK Google has attempted something on this scale. No doubt in the future things will be way more streamlined.

So with a little bit of luck me and about a dozen of our writers will have Nexus 7s soon. Which leads me to the next point. Our review, what would you like to see us test or try out? We have a load of devices to compare the Nexus with and also some of us will be hacking them apart and some leaving it stock. So if you want an in-depth rooting guide let us know.

Is it Google, or Asus causing the problems? I had massive problems getting a Prime back in March, they were (and most prolly still are) like rocking horse poo.
The Nexus7 looks like a great little device, £200? If it had been around when I got my Prime I would have saved myself £300, don’t get me wrong, I love my Prime but £300 for 3″ and a keyboard, hmmmmm I don’t think so. I use mine for gaming, surfing and watching movies, pretty sure 7″ would be good enough for that. What I can see being a pain in the ar5e is the limited capacity and no sd slot, would I like refreshing the media files every weekend? At least with the Prime it has 32gig on board, I have 2 16 gig cards, one in the micro slot on the tablet and one in the keyboard slot, that gives me enough to last me a month or so.

James Pearce

Hi Martin
I am in the same boat. I have a Transformer Prime as well. I’m not sure which will win in the long run. It will no doubt be the basis for an article soon.

Martin Frow

Also, In the current (tablet) situation do non-techy people know that there is another tablet other than the iPad? I don’t know if I have ever seen an advert on the TV for the Prime, loads of idevice TV ads, never a Prime.
Will these non-techy people be willing to pay £500 for the Prime over the iPad? Nope. Now…will these same people if they are confronted with a £199 Nexus 7 pay the £399 for the cheapest iPad? That is a completely other question.
I can see the Nexus 7 completely overshadowing the Prime and other non iPad tablets in both it’s current format and it’s new HD format, whenever that gets into stores.

rudger

I’m still waiting for my N7 16GB the service from google has been a joke, I preordered from the play store on 27th June I Had been trying since google I/o but the play store kept crashing – if google knew how many units they would have for launch day they should have restricted preorders then stopped as soon as they were out of stock. keeping customers in the dark is wrong.

I spoke to Google yesterday to query when it will be shipped and as to why I had not even had an email update. I was told it would be shipped either Tuesday or Wednesday. now google are saying that they may not be dispatched until Friday.

James Pearce

Google certainly will have learnt a few lessons on how to sell a product to retail customers. And yes the communication has been dire

Meddler

I also ordered mine on the 28th and made an attempt to change the delivery address on the 29th. Until this morning I had received no communication whatsoever, however I noted that my bank balanced dropped by £208.99 yesterday morning.

Wonders will never cease, woke up to two emails (as per the article). I clicked the link to TNT and the device was “Out for Delivery” and the TNT depot is three miles away.

Amazingly, the device made an appearance at 1230 (though of course to my home address rather than my work address as no one had acknowledged my request to change the delivery address).

All in all, pretty poor Google.
Next time:
Have a release date. I’m done with the vague “Ships Soon”, give me a damn date.
Send us an occasional email. Even if you’ve got no new news, let us know that things are moving.

Snitch

I got that same message this morning. Mine was ordered on the 29th and money taken 3 days ago still no tab. What do they mean by “next week”? that could be friday next week?? I think they’ve been caught out by the demand for this tab. What hisses me off is that I’m an early adopter/supporter and I’m getting mine last. Still, I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the unit and hope all this is worth it because a lot of my business is Google based and we could end up with 3-4 more of these if they work out. I also know they’re making profit on the shipping because when you negotiate deals with TNT and Citylink on the sort of numbers they’re talking about it equates to about £1(or less on a 2-day) per consignment.

richard

Got mine today even though got a mail saying next week. It’s pretty sweet. The iPad 3 will be having a little holiday whilst I play with this. You do get £15 and transformers installed.